Jannik Sinner failed drug test, still gets to play

burn1986
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So world #1 tennis player failed two drug tests back in March, yet wasn’t banned or suspended from play from March until now. 
 

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1911
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8/20/2024 7:46pm

Everyone is equal, some are just more equal. 🤡

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GrapeApe
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8/21/2024 6:42am

Interesting case if you take a deep dive. Between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol. Most if not all cases come from topical creams or sprays that are legal in Italy but clearly marked on the packaging as containing a WADA prohibited substance. The reason seems to be the testing has caught up to the administration protocol.

So Sinner's physio happened to have a tube of this stuff laying around despite its infamy in recent Italian doping cases. The story is the physio accidentally cut himself on the hand, and was using the topical clostebol to treat the cut. After applying the cream to his cut he then almost immediately massaged Sinner resulting in unintended contamination . . . and they bought it. 

I try to be objective but I'm more likely to believe Floyd Landis had eleveted levels of synthetic testosterone from drinking whiskey.

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TeamGreen
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8/21/2024 6:52am

But, but, but…

It was “unintentional”.

UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE 

APLMAN99
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8/21/2024 6:59am
GrapeApe wrote:
Interesting case if you take a deep dive. Between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol. Most if not all cases come from...

Interesting case if you take a deep dive. Between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol. Most if not all cases come from topical creams or sprays that are legal in Italy but clearly marked on the packaging as containing a WADA prohibited substance. The reason seems to be the testing has caught up to the administration protocol.

So Sinner's physio happened to have a tube of this stuff laying around despite its infamy in recent Italian doping cases. The story is the physio accidentally cut himself on the hand, and was using the topical clostebol to treat the cut. After applying the cream to his cut he then almost immediately massaged Sinner resulting in unintended contamination . . . and they bought it. 

I try to be objective but I'm more likely to believe Floyd Landis had eleveted levels of synthetic testosterone from drinking whiskey.

Sounded suspect to me too, until they started talking about the concentration being something like a part per billion.  It might still be the result of cheating, but it sounds like there is at least a chance it wasn't.  

The part that still smells fishy, though, is that he had to forfeit the $325K for the tournament he tested positive at and lost the points from that event.  It's sort of hard to reconcile 'fining' someone that much money if you truly are saying that they are innocent..........

The Shop

APLMAN99
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8/21/2024 7:03am

Another crazy thing is that it seemed like at least 5-10 mens tennis starts used to be household names when I was growing up.  I just looked at the rankings and I only recognized 1 name in the top 10 (Sinner wasn't that 1).  Is tennis still as high paying as it used to be?  Is it still popular enough to pay out money close to PGA money?

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ATKpilot99
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8/21/2024 7:09am Edited Date/Time 8/21/2024 7:10am
APLMAN99 wrote:
Another crazy thing is that it seemed like at least 5-10 mens tennis starts used to be household names when I was growing up.  I just...

Another crazy thing is that it seemed like at least 5-10 mens tennis starts used to be household names when I was growing up.  I just looked at the rankings and I only recognized 1 name in the top 10 (Sinner wasn't that 1).  Is tennis still as high paying as it used to be?  Is it still popular enough to pay out money close to PGA money?

Good question . Ive never been a tennis fan but like you say there were household names in the sport . I didn't know who this was or what sport was involved until I opened the thread .

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GrapeApe
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8/21/2024 8:30am
GrapeApe wrote:
Interesting case if you take a deep dive. Between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol. Most if not all cases come from...

Interesting case if you take a deep dive. Between 2019 and 2023, 38 Italian athletes tested positive for clostebol. Most if not all cases come from topical creams or sprays that are legal in Italy but clearly marked on the packaging as containing a WADA prohibited substance. The reason seems to be the testing has caught up to the administration protocol.

So Sinner's physio happened to have a tube of this stuff laying around despite its infamy in recent Italian doping cases. The story is the physio accidentally cut himself on the hand, and was using the topical clostebol to treat the cut. After applying the cream to his cut he then almost immediately massaged Sinner resulting in unintended contamination . . . and they bought it. 

I try to be objective but I'm more likely to believe Floyd Landis had eleveted levels of synthetic testosterone from drinking whiskey.

APLMAN99 wrote:
Sounded suspect to me too, until they started talking about the concentration being something like a part per billion.  It might still be the result of...

Sounded suspect to me too, until they started talking about the concentration being something like a part per billion.  It might still be the result of cheating, but it sounds like there is at least a chance it wasn't.  

The part that still smells fishy, though, is that he had to forfeit the $325K for the tournament he tested positive at and lost the points from that event.  It's sort of hard to reconcile 'fining' someone that much money if you truly are saying that they are innocent..........

Intentional or not he had the prohibited substance in his system during that tournament, so he forfeits that event. 

Back in the BALCO days they said clostebol cream could be administered at night and not be detectable by game time the next day. It does it's job and gets out of the system quickly, so they use it in low doses to support testosterone production as opposed to an injection or big hit that spikes testosterone. WADA testing has improved and they are catching the last traces of clostebol before it's totally out of the system.

I'm sure the physio did have the cream on his hand and contaminated Sinner by massage. But his reason for having the cream on his hand sounds like a pretext. Giving the benefit of the doubt maybe Sinner didn't know what was happening but unless the physio was a complete bumbling idiot he knew exactly what he was doing.

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burn1986
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8/21/2024 10:48am Edited Date/Time 8/21/2024 10:48am

The problem to me is he should have immediately been banned from competing, then not allowed to participate until the investigation was complete (like Broc Tickle). He can appeal, but not allowed to compete until the appeal is complete.

Blatant preferential treatment (imo).

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burn1986
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8/21/2024 1:47pm
GrapeApe wrote:
Intentional or not he had the prohibited substance in his system during that tournament, so he forfeits that event. Back in the BALCO days they said clostebol...

Intentional or not he had the prohibited substance in his system during that tournament, so he forfeits that event. 

Back in the BALCO days they said clostebol cream could be administered at night and not be detectable by game time the next day. It does it's job and gets out of the system quickly, so they use it in low doses to support testosterone production as opposed to an injection or big hit that spikes testosterone. WADA testing has improved and they are catching the last traces of clostebol before it's totally out of the system.

I'm sure the physio did have the cream on his hand and contaminated Sinner by massage. But his reason for having the cream on his hand sounds like a pretext. Giving the benefit of the doubt maybe Sinner didn't know what was happening but unless the physio was a complete bumbling idiot he knew exactly what he was doing.

Good points

McG194
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8/22/2024 4:46am

Less than a billionth of a gram...........get the f@ck outta here. 

APLMAN99
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8/22/2024 5:09am
burn1986 wrote:
The problem to me is he should have immediately been banned from competing, then not allowed to participate until the investigation was complete (like Broc Tickle)...

The problem to me is he should have immediately been banned from competing, then not allowed to participate until the investigation was complete (like Broc Tickle). He can appeal, but not allowed to compete until the appeal is complete.

Blatant preferential treatment (imo).

I’m not sure what you are referring to by ‘preferential treatment’ in reference to Tickle. The ATP didn’t ban Tickle. They are in different organizations playing completely different sports. 

But if you want to try to ask why Sinner wasn’t immediately suspended as opposed to Tickle, it could be that the level Sinner tested at was so minuscule that it was plausible for the dermal transfer. And another factor could be that Sinner probably could afford much better, more experienced in the matter, legal counsel. 

But the biggest difference in these cases is that the associations levying the discipline are simply different entities. 

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